Wielding a silver pen: Tommy Hilfiger signs photos of himself for fans at Macy's.

FASHION NIGHT OUT

By Olivia Barker, USA TODAY

Fashion spent the night out Thursday, with more than 800 New York retailers opening their doors late to inject the industry with a much-needed jolt. USA TODAY shadowed two fashion heavyweights — veteran Tommy Hilfiger and relative newcomer Zac Posen— as Hilfiger played the role of designer-as-rock-star and Posen designer-as-artist.

5:30 p.m.: As a sea of onlookers (and potential shoppers) parts, the playful Posen prances through the first floor of Midtown's Bergdorf Goodman, enveloped in a pink leopard print wrap and crowned by a Fred Leighton diamond tiara nestled into his black curls. Striding into a windowless back room, he holds up a bow-bedecked strapless cream dress. "What am I going to do with her?" he says, grinning.

5:37 p.m.: Posen and model Anna Cleveland, now clad in the dress, gingerly walk up and into the cramped window. Camera-wielding fans are gathering.

5:40 p.m.: Posen starts attacking the dress with spray bottles of fabric dye: blue, then violet. A piece of white lace becomes a stencil for creating an orange pattern. No swatch is left un-inked, it seems, from Cleveland's cleavage to her derriere. The effect is psychedelic rainbow couture, for $5,890.

5:50 p.m.: Posen, his fingers inky with blue and red dye, attacks a cap-sleeved shift earmarked for his close friend and client the queen of Jordan with burgundy and black. "What about yellow?" asks Jessica Kipp, who works with Posen. "Yellows are scary," the designer sniffs.

5:55 p.m.: Posen's 10-deep audience is spilling out into the avenue.

6 p.m.: Fashion design as athletic activity: Posen works his fabric canvases over, twisting to get every angle. Care packages of tissues and blotting paper arrive to alleviate Posen's damp brow. Finally, he sheds his shiny white blazer down to his gray burnout T-shirt. "It's a sex film in the window," he jokes, vamping it up for those on the other side of the fashion fishbowl. Posen thinks he's done with his masterpiece. "No darling, not yet," Cleveland says. "You're never done with art."

6:25 p.m.: Now he's really done (he's decorated four dresses live; one pre-painted gown is suspended in the window). He says all the designs and inspiration for his wearable performance art were off the satin cuff. "I was feeding off the energy from Anna first and then the audience," he says. Tonight is about "making people connect with the creative process," which, as they saw, is sometimes sweaty.

6:50 p.m. Downtown to Macy's and Tommy Hilfiger. After introducing up-and-coming jazzman (and Hilfiger's nephew — and one of his former models) Michael Fredo, Hilfiger, wearing a black twill blazer, jeans and cream Chuck Taylors, assumes the role of designer as rock star, autographing black-and-white profile shots of himself for fans.

7:01 p.m. Over in a corner, Hilfiger's brother Andy Hilfiger, who works for the company, helps customers make selections. "We're trying to sell some clothes!" he says.

7:15 p.m. The line of fans largely cleared (Hilfiger bristles a bit at the word "fans," preferring "customers" — "that's how we started the business, interacting with customers"), Hilfiger takes a break. Tonight was a "genius idea of (Vogue editor in chief) Anna Wintour's," he says. (The magazine is a co-sponsor of the event.) "It's important because it's going to stimulate the fashion economy."

7:40 p.m. The Hilfiger crew crawls down Bleecker Street in the West Village in two black SUVs, stopping in front of Hilfiger's cozy store.

8 p.m. Hilfiger takes the mic to introduce Brantley: "Fashion's Night Out is a success. We're really excited to have you all out. We're going to turn this into Rock and Roll's Night Out in a minute" — as soon as someone kills Manic Monday on the stereo.

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